Minnesota Twins, Lee County extend safety netting across both dugouts at Hammond Stadium

The CenturyLink Sports Complex is where Hammond Stadium sits in Fort Myers, Florida. David Dorsey, sportswriter and reporter for The News-Press highlights what is great about the stadium as spring training kicks off. (Andrea Melendez/news-press.com)
Andrea Melendez/news-press.com

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The area behind the two dugouts at Hammond Stadium will have protected netting rising 30 feet from it in time for 2018 spring training. Tim Tebow, shown here, signed autographs for fans during his midsummer, 2017 visit to the ballpark while with the St. Lucie Mets.(Photo: Andrew West/news-press.com)Buy Photo

When it comes to baseball and fan safety at the ballpark, there are solutions to problems, and there are problems with solutions.

The Minnesota Twins, pledging safety first during spring training that begins in mid-February, extended the safety nets across the entire first and third base dugouts at Hammond Stadium at CenturyLink Sports Complex. It was installed over two days late last week.

An announcement for a similar net extension at JetBlue Park, spring training home of the Boston Red Sox, is forthcoming, said Katie Haas, Red Sox vice president of Florida business operations.

The new netting at Hammond Stadium extends down each foul line, between the first and third base dugouts. It covers sections 102 through 114 and reaches a height of 30 feet from end to end, also covering parts of sections 201 through 217 behind home plate. The previous dimensions were 29 feet high and 140 feet wide and spanned from the beginning of each dugout.

The newly installed net along the third-base line at Hammond Stadium.(Photo: David Dorsey/The News-Press)

Thin net strands with knotless intersections will deliver a minimally obtrusive viewing experience, the Twins said in a news release. The new netting is composed of a combination of green hues to allow the netting to blend with the playing field and provide greater visibility.

The netting cost $49,575.15 and was split evenly between the county and the Twins, according to Lee County communications director Betsy Clayton. The county’s portion came from Tourist Development Tax funds.

Clayton said there were no plans to increase the netting at the other two county-owned stadiums, City of Palms Park and Terry Park.

“Fan safety and the addition of netting, it’s a trend running across Major League Baseball,” said Dave St. Peter, president and chief executive officer of the Twins. “We installed (additional) netting in Minneapolis. We’ve had conversations with our season ticket holders before we did it. Most of our season ticket holders appreciated having it.

“In addition, we understand many fans have phones and are distracted from watching every pitch. We’re sensitive to the accessibility to our players with our fans. There are still plenty of areas for that to take place. There’s not a spring training facility built since 1991 that has more access points for fans to get up close than at CenturyLink Sports Complex. That’s still the case.”

About a half dozen incidents of balls or bats injuring fans are reported each spring training season, Benjamin Abes of Lee County Emergency Medical Services told The News-Press last year.

New netting along the first-base dugout at Hammond Stadium.(Photo: David Dorsey/The News-Press)

"Nearly all are minor and do not require transport," he said.

A 2014 study by Bloomberg News found foul balls injured 1,750 fans per year at Major League Baseball games, a little less than one fan for each of the 2,460 regular season games.

On March 26, 2012, Michael Devlin of Lee County was hit in the left temple while watching a Rays-Twins spring training game at Hammond. He suffered an aneurysm and spent a week in the hospital, including three days in intensive care. His medical expenses reached $35,000, he said. His seat behind the first base dugout would have been protected by the new netting.

Fans assume those risks. It says so, in fine print, on the back of each ticket stub and on signs posted at various vantage points and at the entrances of each ballpark. That will not change with the new netting, but other things will.

For the first 26 years of Hammond Stadium’s history, the dugout area served as a pregame congregation of fans and players for autograph signings. Cal Ripken Jr., Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr., Paul Molitor and Kirby Puckett are just some of the Hall of Fame players who have received and tossed back baseballs, trading cards and photographs with autographs on them to fans.

That fan-player dynamic along the dugout will be no more.

Brandon Rose, a Fort Myers resident and Twins spring training season-ticket holder since the ballpark opened in 1991, sits in section 113, about 10 rows behind the third base dugout. He will have netting in front of him for the first time. He received a letter from the Twins informing him.

“We’ve been lucky the last couple of years,” Rose said. “We have not had any line drives hit into our section. But we did have, for several years, not only line drives hit into our section, but the barrel of a bat came flying into the lady who sat right behind me. That barrel of the bat came so fast.

“Your eyes aren’t on the bat. Your eyes are on the ball that is hit. People yelled ‘duck.’ As I ducked down, I saw the shadow of the barrel of the bat go over my head on the concrete steps. Luckily, she was OK. They took her out and examined her. But this all happened in a split second.”

Rose said he understood why autograph collectors might be upset they won’t be able to pass items to fans with the new nets in the way.

“I’ll tell you what,” Rose said. “Somebody not getting seriously hurt because that netting is up is more important than a kid getting a couple of baseballs from a ballplayer. You’ll still be able to interact verbally with the players and the coaches.”

The Twins have 17 home spring training games scheduled this year. The Fort Myers Miracle, Class-A minor league affiliate of the Twins, have 70 home games on the schedule.

New Miracle general manager Chris Peters said he was all in favor of the netting.

“The nets are up,” Peters said. “They’re done. They pretty much did it over two days.

“I can tell you over the years, I’ve seen some scares and some injuries. It’s going to go a long way in alleviating some of the risk involved in coming to a baseball game.

“With the technology they’ve come up with, it’s hard to even see the net. You know it’s there, but it’s so thin. The technology has improved so much. To me, it’s a non-issue in terms of seeing the game. And you’re still going to have the fan interaction. The increase in safety, it’s all-around a great thing.”

Fans can still try to get autographs from players between the end of each dugout and the outfield, where there will be no nets.

Buzz Dunham, an usher at JetBlue Park, said he looked forward to additional nets as well. The current net dimensions there are 30 feet high by 160 feet wide.

“That sounds pretty good,” said Dunham, who was hit in the back of the head by a baseball during batting practice last year. He recovered and went back to work. Dunham, 82, will be back again this season.

“I see it all the time during batting practice,” Dunham said. “People just don’t pay attention. There’s nothing you can do about it. I think the netting will be great.”